The invention relates to a rotary/pushbutton controller having an operator control ring which can be rotated about a rotational axis and which is rotatably mounted on a holding cylinder which is arranged coaxially within the operator control ring, wherein the holding cylinder is provided at one of its ends with an input and/or display field and the operator control ring and/or the holding cylinder can be moved axially with respect to the rotational axis counter to a spring force from a neutral position into a switched position which activates a switch, having a rotary transmitter ring which is arranged coaxially on the operator control ring and is arranged coaxially next to a rotary transmitter which is fixedly connected to the holding cylinder, wherein the relative rotational position of the rotary transmitter ring with respect to the rotary transmitter can be sensed.
In such a rotary/pushbutton controller, it is known that only the operator control ring but not the holding cylinder and the rotational axis can be rotated.
Such a rotary/pushbutton controller is used in particular in a motor vehicle for control of, for example, a multimedia system or navigation system or a vehicle subsystem such as an air-conditioning system. In this context, for example, the selection of a menu item can be made by rotating the operator control ring, the menu item is then selected by pressing the operator control ring, where the holding cylinder and/or the input and display field and switching the switching element.
Numbers, letters or symbols can be displayed and/or selected on the input and display field independently of the operator control ring.
It is also possible to make the input and display field sensitive and to use it for menu prompting and/or data input.
For example, it is possible to input lines, symbols, numerals or letters by moving a finger on the input and display field.
Since the input and display field in the motor vehicle is fixed, the position is optimized for the driver as a right-handed person in a left-hand drive vehicle. If the driver is left-handed or if the front seat passenger also attempts to activate the rotary/pushbutton controller, this activation is possible only with difficulty.